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Thursday, June 8, 2017

Poptone, goths, POW!, and it's a family affair

Daniel Ash, Poptone, Ace of Spades Sacramento

A Tuesday evening at the Ace of Spades in Sacramento, California, and the downstairs floor is filling up with a generous, if not sold-out, crowd. The background music, songs I can sing along to and I'm showing my age by knowing all the words to T Rex's Metal Guru, which is still worth hearing and still valid, even today. I look around and I feel I'm in a bit of a time warp; goths as far as the eye can see. Poptone is in town; Daniel Ash and Kevin Haskins plus Haskin's daughter, Diva Dompe, playing songs from Bauhaus, Tones on Tail, and Love & Rockets. Appearance, such a huge part of the goth scene; black everywhere. My daughter and fellow writer Jade should have been here, in her black-eyed-goth-from-France getup, but she's at home because very-late-pregnancy isn't conducive to standing in a crowd in Sacramento temperatures for hours on end. So I'm her proxy tonight. And the evening is more than simply Bauhaus-goth; it's also post-punk-synth-pop-and-rock, Poptone style.

And then the band that we've all been waiting for: Poptone. Forget the black, you should have worn white, because the show is all black light, Daniel Ash center front, all in white, sunglasses and bottle-brush hair; Diva Dompe in a long, white dress, Kevin Haskins bathed in red and green as the lights change. Opening the show with an Elvis song? Yes. Does it sound like Elvis? Not one bit! You've never heard Heartbreak Hotel like this. And then OK, This is the Pops, followed by Mirror People, and then Ash breaks out the sax for Movement of Fear... and we have a show!

Check out the full setlist here: a wonderful, diverse selection from Tones on Tail, Love & Rockets, one Bauhaus, a David Bowie, an Elvis... yep, you should have been here.

Poptone, Ace of Spades, Sacramento

All the songs are highlights, but for me, An American Dream--Love & Rockets--the killer. Heavier than the original, and then leading into Christian Says (Tones on Tail). Powerful.

Poptone have a unique and special way of touring; a couple of weeks on the road, and then a few days off, back home. Check all the dates here, on Poptone's Facebook page.

Poptone, Ace of Spades, Sacramento

I'm texting updates to Jade throughout the evening. She reminds me that she interviewed Kevin Haskins in New York in 2005 (here's the story, and the interview). One of the things that's not included in the interview is the discussion that they had about the British punk scene, with Kevin knowing the band that Jade's dad roadied for, The Janitors. Sometimes this planet is so small, and so huge, all you can do is listen to the music. And if you can catch one of the Poptone gigs, do.

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